First, we are going straight to Team 12,
Colleen Secora with more on that wild
climb that caught everyone's attention
downtown this morning. Colleen.
Yeah, it was quite a shock to the
dozens of people that were standing
by here on the street as they
watched that man climb up the 40
stories of the former chase tower
here without a rope or a harness.
So we wanna actually ascend him up
this building with our prayers because
starting at the bottom of
40 floors, Mason Deschamp,
also known as Pearl Life Spiderman,
set to climb up the former chase
tower. A bit before 9:45 AM,
Phoenix Fire gets the call.
We had our technical rescue
members from two different cities.
We had Phoenix and Glendale.
As they arrived on scene,
we put members.
At the top of the chase
tower and at the bottom at
that time, he's about 15
stories up as people like Elle
Smith watched from the street.
Someone told me, and I'm like,
I don't, I don't believe that.
But I came out here and I was like,
Yep. People are crazy.
By 10:20, Sky 12 is overhead.
It's pretty interesting watching
this as questions still lingered.
Kind of 1 on one-on-one.
Like wonder like what is he thinking?
Like, what's wrong with mine
to make him wanna do that?
It's in an alley between
central and 1st St. We find out
I was here for a prayer walk,
that we're just gonna pray over the babies.
And Mason decided to climb
something Deschamp does,
calling attention to a pro-life
message by scaling your
former chase tower supporters.
Confident. He'll reach the top
and I don't think I know God is with him
and this is actually one of the smaller
buildings he's ever climbed at 1044.
Can't tell you that his plan
was to go all the way top,
and he did make it all the
way to the top at the bottom,
brought out in handcuffs.
Now, in the
last few hours, we've also learned
from Phoenix police that Deschamp
is facing criminal trespassing and
nuisance charges tonight on 12 news
at 5 here from the supporters of his
who stand by his decision to climb
up all 40 stories of this tower,
risking his own life.
We're live in downtown Phoenix.
Colleen Secora, 12 news.
All right, Colleen, thank you.
We have been digging deeper
into this story all afternoon.
Team tells Erica Stapleton is here
to introduce you to pro-life.
Yeah guys, this is absolutely crazy.
Of course, this events this
morning downtown Phoenix,
lots of people watching from the street,
and I found champ publicly scaled
at least six other buildings
nationwide since August 2021
from New York to Los Angeles,
and he's usually live
streaming along the way.
The self-proclaimed pro-life
Spiderman appear in Phoenix
23 year old Mason Deschamp risking
his own life as he free climbs up
the former Chase Tower building
Tuesday morning live streaming as
he scales up upon the chase tower,
the activist claims he's raising
money for an Indiana based pro-life
group called Let them live and it's
not his first time on the ledge.
Hey guys I'm up here on the 600
foot Aria just climbing in 2021 he
posted as he climbed the Aria Hotel
in Las Vegas a protest for COVID.
Restrictions and last year,
he posted he climbed the Salesforce
tower in San Francisco,
the New York Times building,
the Renaissance Center in Detroit,
the Devon Tower in Oklahoma City,
and the Ritz Carlton in Los Angeles,
all for his pro-life cause.
In most of these cases,
according to local and national news reports,
Deschamp was charged with some form of
trespassing, but was always released.
Deschamp himself claims his claims aren't
illegal despite his numerous arrests,
but climbing concrete comes
with a lot of Gray area,
according to Mark Mendoza criminal defense.
Attorney and partner at Mays, Texas.
There's not something that really
addresses this specific issue or
this specific conduct, I should say.
After he reached the top of the
former chase tower in Phoenix,
Deschamp was taken into custody
and police said he'd be booked
in jail and trespassing and
criminal nuisance charges. We're
talking about an individual scaling up
the side of the outside of the building.
So there really is a question about
is the trespassing law really fit
this set of circumstances or not
because it's something unique.
The organization to sham claims he's
helping is called let them live.
It's a registered nonprofit,
according to Tax Records from 2019 and 2020,
although it's not clear exactly how
their money is used or where it goes.
Let them live did not respond
to our request for comment.
We're in the studio.
Erica Stapleton, 12 news.
Erica, thank you.